Hey Joe! Here’s Ten Reasons I wasn’t a Tea Bagger (and you’re one of them)

I understand the most famous plumber that isn’t a plumber will be gracing our fair county soon. Sam Wurzelbacher (aka Joe T. Plumber) is coming to Livingston for the second time in just a few months. His first visit was with the traveling herd known as the Tea Bag Express which partied down at the Brighton Mill Pond. I’m told his moment with the microphone was charitably called unscripted as he was reported to have randomly ranged from gun possession to something about snakes on a leash, a difficult image to envision.

It’s not that I was too busy to attend that party, but there are many reasons why I preferred to observe the Tea Bag phenomenon from afar.

1.)The Boston Tea Party occurred to protest “Taxation without Representation”. The fact that folks like U.S. Representative Addison “Joe” Wilson shows up at these events kind of blows that conceit out of the water.

I have a representative whose name is Mike Rogers. The fact that I’ve never voted for him doesn’t mean that I’m taxed without representation.

Last year we all voted for our representatives from President to dog catcher. Some voted for winners, some didn’t. I suspect the tea baggers didn’t get their wishes from the vote fairy. Sorry.

2.)The Tea Parties attracted a gaggle of protesters. One group was there to protest the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), the multi-billion dollar program to stabilize American commerce and finance. I can only assume that these folks thought that if the world banking system collapsed they would be immune to the effects. We may get a sense of the consequences from this week’s CITI bankruptcy. It may, unfortunately, provide a real lesson when small and medium size retailers not only can’t borrow money for inventory, they may even have their credit lines called in just in time for the holiday shopping season.

To understand what happens when a country’s (let alone the world’s) banking system collapses, consider Iceland where borrowing money will cost you well over 15% (if you can actually find someone with money willing to loan you money) and the currency is less stable than Zimbabwe’s. McDonalds even closed all of its restaurants there! The cost of the failure of Iceland’s three main banks is seven times more than Iceland’s GDP (the total value of everything Iceland produces in a year).

Immune? Sure, in a bomb shelter full of food, guns, and krugerrands. You’ve got all three? I see no reason for you to tolerate this society any longer and think you should relocate underground immediately.

3.)Anti-health care reformers apparently showed up in droves. They worried that granny will face a death squad just like the Republican legislature and Governor George W. Bush created in 1999 in Texas. Or force people to make life ending decisions when face to face with their Doctor like Sarah Palin touted in Alaska on April 16, 2008, her self proclaimed “Healthcare Decisions Day”.

The case for overhauling the health care system is obvious to everyone not on Medicare, an irony lost on the tea baggers. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan raised their premiums 20% in May and has applied for increases of as much as 31% going forward. As a former employer I know that providing health insurance at these levels and with these annual increases simply won’t be possible. And forget about raises if you’re lucky enough to have employer paid health insurance.

Just about every opinion poll except Fox News gives the health care reform with the “public option” an over 50% favorable rating (Fox admits 49% for the public option). The New England Journal of Medicine shows 62.9% of American Doctors support the public option. It’s not often I go with the flow but I will on this issue.

4.)When the busses rolled into Brighton for the party there was much concern that a black man was giving a 15 minute talk in some lily-white schools. That arbiter of all things stupid, Glenn Beck, announced he was keeping his children home from school so they wouldn’t be forced to watch the President of the United States of America speak to the nation’s youth about education.

I agree with Randy Speck, superintendent of Oakland (County) Christian School who noted “This kind of outrage gives conservative Christians a bad name.” Those wild and crazy liberals, Laura Bush and Newt Gingrich, thought it was a worthwhile message, but Beck’s kids will never know.

5.) Hucksters like Addison “Joe” Wilson, who hides his racism by claiming he’s simply trying to restore pre-Civil War Southern culture, goes to Tea Bag parties. Wilson is a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, a group in good standing with white supremacist organizations around the country.

6.) Some Tea Baggers are still whining about the government bailing out General Motors and Chrysler. Mostly they’re anti-union people anxious to repeal Frankie Roosevelt’s administration. I laughed my butt off when the Southern legislators kept demanding that GM and Chrysler should be allowed to fail and then cried like babies when the local auto dealerships started closing. Did they really think the dealerships were going to stay open if GM and Chrysler closed? Were they really concerned when they talked about the necessity of the hardships Michigan workers were going to have to face? Apparently lots of jobs in Michigan don’t matter as much as a few jobs in Armpit, Alabama. Do those guys stand for anything besides the bad old days and fat campaign contributions?

7.)There are a lot of complaints about the national debt at these parties. I agree. I worry about the debt our children and their children will bear because of us. But I wrote often about the ballooning debt during the Bush years when low and middle class wages were stagnant or falling and only the wealthy prospered. I didn’t get any angry arguments from anyone in Livingston County when the deficit grew by more than 4 trillion dollars then.

Throwing money at the economic wreck Bush passed on to us is scary, but the economy was slipping into depression and token gestures like Bush’s “rebate checks” weren’t going to turn the tide. A robust, expanding economy will cure a lot of ills and that’s what the stimulus money is meant to do.

8.) Sorry, but I didn’t want to listen to Joe the Plumber, the guy who isn’t Joe and isn’t even a plumber yet. Joe’s claim to fame was announcing that he wouldn’t go into business because of increased taxes on the wealthiest 5% of Americans. Having run a small business for 16 years, let me tell Joe if he’s basing his desire to own a business only on the tax situation, he should just open a bank in the Grand Cayman Islands. If he doesn’t like taxes in the U.S. there are a lot of countries with almost no taxes. I hear Pakistan needs plumbers badly.

Or just maybe America’s infrastructure, that benefits both citizens and businesses and was paid for with taxes, has some advantages that aren’t enjoyed by many low tax countries. A legal framework to open and operate a business, trade laws to ensure fair and equal commerce, rails, rivers and roads kept open and operable for bringing goods to markets, and an educated work force are possible because of taxes. Since you can’t pick and choose which taxes you want to pay, communication with your representative (see No. 1 above) is the way to affect tax policy, which, by the way, is what the original Boston Tea Party protesters were demonstrating for.

9.)Some of the partiers were protesting the possibility of strong carbon emission controls. Since both Presidential candidates backed such action last year it seems like the timetable is more when than if.

We’ve done a great job of mucking up a beautiful planet. I’ll bet God’s not too pleased with how we’ve taken care of his creation. Whether the changes in our weather are man made or natural occurrences doesn’t mean we should keep treating the atmosphere as a dumping ground for the poisons that we generate.

Why do the same people who wring their hands over leaving their kids a large national debt have no problem leaving their children and their children’s children life on an ultimately toxic planet?

10.)Another group in attendance was the birthers, a movement so discredited that even Ann Coulter ignores it. I just find the word “birthers” hilarious and try to work it in to as many articles as I can.

Plus, the protesters at the Boston Tea Party wore Native American Indian costumes, presumably so they wouldn’t wake to British Red Coats knocking on their doors the next morning. That seems pretty brave as well as pretty cool.

But stapling tea bags to your clothes? Mmmm, I don’t think so.

The Nobel "Problem"

Starting off the day Friday with Rush Limbaugh hollering about the secret coded message five guys in Norway sent to President Obama was kind of a surprise.

I never tune in to Rush Limbaugh since I’m more of an exclamation point head.

But, whew, it was just a sound bite from his show on my regular station, Radio Free Livingston.

Of course that sure didn’t explain why Rush’s panties were all in a bunch. I needed the trusty old internet to find that out. And there it was, splattered all over my home page “President Obama Gets Secret Coded Message from Five Guys in Norway.” Or something like that.

Actually the headline was about the Nobel Peace Prize. “Geez,” I thought, “Doesn’t he have anything better to do than sit around all day filling out prize applications?” I remember one time Frito Lay had a sweepstakes and I spent three days filling out 3 x 5” cards with my name and address, which is what you had to send them if you didn’t actually buy their Doritos. But postage was only twenty three cents back then.

And then I found out he didn’t spend three days filling out three by five index cards. He didn’t have to do anything. Some other people took care of everything and he just went about his business and before you know it he had won the most prestigious award ever of all time.

That’s not exactly right either.

But then the you-know-what hit the fan. NOBODY thought he should have won. No one. Not even Bo, the watery dog.

So I felt kind of bad that the President of the United States of America had to apologize about winning the jackpot. If I’d won that Chevy Vega from Frito Lay I wouldn’t have apologized about it to anyone, even if I really didn’t think I deserved it.

Then I got to thinking about who else ever won the Peace Prize. Off the top of my head I actually couldn’t remember that Martti Ahtisaari won last year, which I should have because I was quite a fan of his when he was President of Finland.

So I found a list of all the people who had ever won the Nobel Peace Prize. It was quite a walk down memory lane. Remember 2004 when Wangari Maathai won the prize? I wonder how she’s doing these days.

And I know it’s crude to laugh at people’s names because people can’t pick out their own names, but back in 1994 when Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences shared the prize I laughed so hard beer shot out my nose when I heard the announcement.

Although Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference actually would have been a great name for a rock band now that I think about it.

All day long all I heard was that President Obama should give back the prize. Yeah, right, like they’d do that if they’d won. Some said better people deserved it more but after the Dalai Lama won in 1989 I think the really obvious world peace choices were basically narrowed down by a lot. There’s probably a rule against winners entering twice so everyone has a fair chance.

I like to think that I’m a good sport, so since I didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize I’ll step aside and congratulate the winner. At least he’s someone I’ve heard of before.

And it might just work out like that Christmas when your aunt Donna finally got you a cool present, a black leather jacket. And you looked at the label and it was a size 42 but you wore a size 38. Your mom told you not to mention it to aunt Donna or give it back because it might hurt her feelings. Then a couple of years later you found the jacket way back in the closet and tried it on and it fit perfectly.

I guess sometimes you just have to wait to grow into neat things that people give you.

The Tea-Bags of Wrath

I’ve never met Rich Perlberg, the executive editor of the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus, and sometimes knowing someone helps to understand how and why some sort of kerfuffle blows up around them. Sure, I’ve been reading his editorials for years but he never really struck me as someone committed to the kerfuffle business.
Mr. Perlberg fancies himself as a conventional moderate in a county that considers Bill O’Reilly a bit left-leaning. He took a little heat back in 2007 for allowing the newspaper to be one of the sponsors for an Ann Coulter speech, but in Livingston County, Ann’s just a moderate.
I do feel a little bad for him, though. They say you’re judged by the company you keep and poor ole Rich is kind of stuck between companies right now. Progressives know he’s not about the kind of change they’re hoping for, and now conservatives have turned on him like he was working for ACORN on the side. Which I pretty much doubt, but like I said, I don’t know the man.
Back on Sept. 13 Mr. Perlberg wrote an editorial in The Daily Press and Argus in what I would call a breezy style. You know, not lots of hokey gravitas like a Southern politician would use. You could kind of see him smiling as he wrote it.
But man, the hounds of hell slipped their chains that day. Apparently, breezy is not an approved conservative literary style. In the following days Letters to the Editor column a Mr. Nelson wrote that it was written in a “childish …style” (Letters, Sept. 17) which may explain why Mr. Prystash wrote that even his 5 year old understood what the heck was going on (Letters, Sept. 17).
The game changing event Mr. Perlberg covered in his editorial was a party given by a group of non-partisan Republicans at the Brighton Millpond. August celebrities attended such as Joe the Plumber, who’d better get back to plumbing or he won’t have to worry about taxes at all anymore. Actually Joe seemed to be about the only one skipping work that day. There were stay at home moms with their (precocious) tots, retirees and small business owners, but I couldn’t see a lot of people who might have clocked out for an hour or two to attend the party. You know, guys in mechanics clothes, pressmen with inky fingers or even a McDonald’s uniform.
It’s too bad they missed it because these parties are such a riot that there’s even a band of groupies with a bus and everything following the parties around the countryside organizing these spontaneous events wherever the voice (or school video) of President Obama might be heard.
Apparently the parties are open to the public so long as the public answers the question, “Did your heart explode when you awoke last November 5 to find out McCain lost the election?” by saying “God yes,” an invocation of complicity.
Although he was in attendance, Mr. Perlberg chose not to debate obvious (at least to him) facts like the government already runs your healthcare if you have Medicare. He may have felt that if you didn’t believe that to be true, rational discussion was clearly not going to rear its controversial head. So when he got back to his office, a breezy style was adopted.
Too bad because it shows that the whole point of the party eluded Mr. Perlberg much the way the statements of Sonja Sotomayor eluded old white judges.
The point was that there were 4,000 people with 4,000 complaints and they were hoping Mr. Perlberg would make it 4001. He could have joined Joe and his rants about his deep affection for his fire arm, the retirees who promised there would be no government-run health care, the birthers who spoke of secret dark conspiracies, or even joined the people of non-color warning everyone else that, for now, they are still in the majority.
It’s too bad Mr. Perlberg didn’t reach out to these poor souls disaffected by society. They were clearly hurting and reaching out for understanding. Breezy just didn’t do it.

Thanks, Joe Wilson (No Lie!)

Like 99% of the American populace, I’d never heard of Rep. Joe Wilson before his now famous outburst. But after reading a few articles on the internet about him I realize I owe him a debt of gratitude.
Joe is a cracker from South Carolina who isn’t actually a Joe at all. He’s an Addison, and like many people from South Carolina Addison Graves Wilson Sr. seems fixated on an era that doesn’t exist anywhere but in the minds of his neighbors and him. The era is one when African American citizens showed deference to white people, acted like they enjoyed working in the homes of white people, and had no rights to vote, go to the local school or even grab a sandwich at the soda shop downtown.
A couple of years ago my daughter was considering two out of state employment opportunities. She visited Columbia, South Carolina and Denver, Colorado to get a sense of not only the job but also the culture.
During the ensuing family discussion of the pros and cons of each, I had to tell her that if she moved to South Carolina I’d be hard pressed to visit her. South Carolina didn’t make my list of a million places to visit before I die.
She was incredulous. How could I be so arbitrary? I explained that it wasn’t just South Carolina, but most of the confederate states missed inclusion on my list. South Carolina stood out because of their insistence on flying a flag at the state capitol from a war that ended 150 years ago.
Germany ditched the Swastika flag, Japan got rid of the Rising Sun but the confederate flag officially flies in Columbia.
Much of the credit must go to Addison Wilson who, as a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was one of only seven (all Republican) Senators who voted to continue to fly the confederate flag on the capitol roof in 2000. However, the compromise to fly the flag on the capitol grounds did little to mollify this Son of whatever.
Prior to that, Addison Wilson had served as a page for the 1948 Segregationist party’s presidential nominee, Strom Thurmond when Thurmond served in the U.S. Senate. After Thurmond’s death in 2003 Addison was shocked when an African American woman named Essie Mae Washington-Williams came forward with the news that Thurmond had supported her mother and her after impregnating her then 16 year old mother.
Addison was distraught. He called the revelation “unseemly” and wondered aloud why Ms. Washington-Williams hadn’t kept the news to herself.
Addison, like Nixon and G. W. Bush, believes that actions have no meaning, that the illusion constructed around the action is all that’s important.
Addison’s outburst came during a speech on health care reform by President Obama. In fact, before Addison converted his campaign website into a plea for contributions, it headlined “JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!” Like so many other confused people, however, Addison forgets that his entire family is covered, at no charge, by TRICARE, a government run health care program for some servicemen and veterans. He calls TRICARE “world class care”.
And to prove that only faux aristocracy like him deserves free “world class” care, Addison has repeatedly voted not to include all reservists and National Guard members in TRICARE eligibility.
Wilson claims his outburst was spontaneous. I suppose maybe it was. He sat there being lectured by a black man, who happens to be the President of the United States of America, and just couldn’t take it any more. He needed to let people, especially his South Carolina constituents, know that he would not civilly listen to this uppity black.
Addison’s outburst was intended to show those people whose self worth is based solely on their skin color that the old southern biases are alive and well in Columbia.
For that I thank him. My daughter, still in Denver, now understands why there are parts of this great country I’ll never visit or pass through.
I prefer looking to the future and the possibilities it holds to wallowing around in regret and recrimination over a war that ended 150 years ago and a culture that’s best days are behind it but still flatters itself by dehumanizing others.

Grouchy Old Paranoids Keep Students Home: The Country is Saved!

Hallelujah! This morning dawned without word of the takeover of the United States by armed 8th graders or camouflaged guerilla 10th graders. There was no looting the rich and handing it out to the poor. The President spoke to school children and the nation survived!
Of course, the President of the United States of America addressed only those students whose parents don't belong to the Grouchy Old Paranoids (GOP) party.
Just imagine the relief of American bigots like Glenn Beck who was so concerned that a black man would be speaking in lily white schools that he urged parents to keep their children home on Tuesday.
Or William Skilling, Superintendent of Oxford Community Schools whose blood pressure got so high he became confused about what President Obama was speaking about and proclaimed "It is not the role to indoctrinate our students in either politics or religion.". Lordy, that Obama must be some speaker to do all that indoctrinating in 15 minutes.
How did parochial school administrators deal with such a "controversial" video?
Randy Speck, superintendent of Oakland Christian School, admitted that the right wing opposition had grown way out of proportion to the video and allowed his high school students to view it. "This kind of outrage gives conservative Christians a bad name," he said.
And although neither the outrage nor his statement changed my opinion of conservative Christians one iota, I now suspect William Skilling isn't one of the sharper pencils in the cup..
Other Republicans didn't seem quite so threatened by the video. Newt Gingrich thought it was "a good speech and...good for students to hear."
Laura Bush said, "There's a place for the President of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children."
The far right wing, of course, feared what they most fear about all education: free thinking and analysis. Had the President spoken of independent thought, the next generation of unquestioning ditto heads might be contaminated.
Oh well, sooner or later Americans who aren't proudly ignorant ditto heads will figure out that bashing Obama in advance of his actions says more about the Fox News Channel and Reactionary Radio than about the President. Plus, he's not the real thorn in their sides.
Over 60% of Americans voted for change last year and we intend to have it.

Republicans Won't Let the Truth Kill a Good Story

The party of the Grouchy Old Paranoids (GOP) has employed P. T. Barnum's philosophy for years to woo the gullible into the big tent of the wealthy. In America there is indeed one born every minute and the Republicans voter precentage wouldn't break into double figures without them.
Why else would former V. P. Cheney still walk around telling people that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks and someday we'll find all the weapons of mass destruction he's just about positive must be in Iraq? Other world leaders assume he's daft but actually he's just wearing his team's colors.
And last year's Presidential campaign? Really! He's Muslim who goes to a Christian church that has an atheist preacher? His fist bump with his wife was really a terrorist signal? His Hawaiian birth certificate is a fake? God these paranoids are hilarious when threatened.
Now there's a yard sign in my neighborhood that proclaims "Obamacare = Euthanasia for the Elderly".
Ignoring the obvious fact that President Obama does not have a health care program and has asked Congress to create one, this old folks euthanasia fable feeds right into the Grouchy Old Paranoid fantasies, doesn't it?
This right wing scare tactic is another cable news fact that has been discredited everywhere but on the Fox News channel.
For the record, the facts are written here (Newsweek) and here (Wall Street Journal).
Of course loyal Republicans wouldn't dare follow these links. They're ditto heads and ordered not to look for the truth under any circumstance.
There is one GOP lie that I wish was true...that Democrats will have the power to deny health care to Republicans.
Imagine Limbaugh without his oxycontin.

If Ignorance is Bliss Livingston County Must Be Heaven

It's impossible to underestimate the intellectual acuity of the writers to The Daily Press and Argus. After a while you recognize the same names over and over, a recurring nightmare of ignorant paranoia.
And while it's pretty clear from their inaccuracies that they rely on FOX and Rush for their opinions, they also trust The Daily Press and Argus. Could it be that The Daily Press and Argus isn't even considered "main stream media", the pejorative used for media reporting that happens to be fact based?
Sunday's letter was from Tom Worley, a frequent contributor.
Mr. Worley denounces health care reform by worrying that this new-fangled reform will take away his Medicare for some damn fool government program.
Since the paper won't archive its articles (perhaps for good reason?), Worley's letter follows.

August 23, 2009

Changes in health insurance troubling

For the last several weeks, I have read everything I could to try to understand exactly what the president's health plan would do for myself and other seniors

As a salaried retiree from General Motors Co., I have been on the short end of the stick. I have lost my company-paid insurance on which I paid a co-pay. I have lost my long-term-care insurance, which I have paid for the last 40 years. I now pay for those prescriptions. I lost all my life insurance except $10,000. I feel I have truly earned those benefits.

Now, from what I have read, Medicare may be abolished and then I will be subjected to a government-run health-care system, which, at this point in my life, will have no interest in my return to sound health, but will encourage me to think about dying, not living. I have worked hard for these benefits and to see them snatched away in such a inconsiderate way. This angers me greatly.

Also, I do not hear of any of our lawmakers trying to pass the same type of bill that would make their health coverage the same as ours. The president has flip-flopped several times already on this issue. So where is the real truth?

Tom Worley

Howell

The irony here is the headline of the letter that ran just above Worley's, by Bob Moriset, another Grouchy Old Paranoid

August 23, 2009

Nation is suffering from incompetence

Republican Russians?

I've always assumed that Republicans scorn anything new. They tend to like things the way they were, occasionally the way they are, but never the way they could be.
But an incident on August 6 is making me rethink my assumption. A massive internet attack on a lone writer from Georgia (the country, not the state) overloaded the computers that serve Twitter and Facebook, two social networking web sites only recently used for political discourse instead of vacuous announcements of little concern to anyone but the willing participants.
The purpose of the attack was clear. The writer, who calls himself Giorgy is a 34 year old Georgian refugee who blogs about his country and it's fight to remain independent.
And someone doesn't think that's the sort of thing people need to know about.
On August 6 a massive attack on his Twitter and Facebook pages literally shut down their entire websites.
Republicans, generally the last to consider new ideas, were impressed. At the very time they were struggling to stifle debate over any changes to America's health care for the rich system, drowning out the voices of others was something an organized minority could do. Intimidate the opposition and drown out debate. Carry guns to town hall meetings and hang legislators in effigy.
The facts are, however, that over 50% of Americans favor reforming our health care for the rich system. Some pollsters put the number as high as 70%.
So ultimately the intimidators will lose.
But in the meantime, I'm watching the loud mouths on web videos. Most of them are older than their hero Lou Dobbs, meaning they're on Medicare benefits. No wonder they don't want any changes...Medicare is affordable and works really well for them and they never worry about arbitrary or unfair health insurance cancellation.
Even as old as they are they remind me of playground bullies who ran the playground with the loudest voice and clenched fists but never got past the first round of the spelling bee.
It's widely suspected that the cyber attack to silence the Georgian writer was officially (or probably unofficially) instigated by Russians who believe that Georgia needs to rejoin mother Russia and begin rebuilding the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Who knew the right wing was so open to ideas from Reagan's "evil empire"? Then again, when your idea account is bankrupt what have you got to lose?

Why You Should Never Argue With a Ditto Head

Like the idols they worship, Ditto Heads are adept at avoiding one thing in their posts and ramblings. Somehow they never worry about facts getting in the way. The mere fact that someone with limited intelligence and documentable paranoia has made a ridiculous pronouncement seems like rock solid proof to these folks. If Rush said the world's oceans were about to part, half a million dolts would be lined up in New Jersey with their luggage ready to walk to Ireland.
An example? This penetrating analysis from the right proudly displayed in The Livingston Daily Press and Argus, Aug. 7, 2009.
August 7, 2009

Environmentalists just go too far

It truly amazes me how a small, very vocal and very well-financed group of people can "rule" many policies and now laws that affect all the people of the United States. This group of people under several names considers itself the savior of everything that strikes its fancy.

These people call themselves environmentalists and have assumed the right to meddle in everyone's business whether they have the right to do so or not. They have taken rumors and incomplete scientific studies and promoted them as fact. These saviors comprise only 1 percent or 2 percent of our population, yet they rule the other 98 percent of us, and no one dares complain.

One of the worst offenders is former Vice President Al Gore and his story of global warming. More and more trained scientists are stating that the earth goes through periods of warming and cooling in 20- to 50-year cycles, ranging only 3 percent to 5 percent in temperature. Yet, the press and others seem to ignore the experts and listen to the rumor-mongers. Why can't common sense rule? Because when someone criticizes these self-styled rulers of the world, they come down from their mountain and pontificate "their truth" of how things should be.

Now, with global warming being taken as an absolute truth, the people of the United States are going to be taken for the most expensive con job in the history of man. This con is known as "cap and trade." This will cost the people of the United States several trillion dollars, which, if we are actually able to pay this debt, it will take yours and my great-great-great-grandchildren to do so.

Please contact the people in Washington, D.C., and ask that they delay implementing any law that will have effect on generations of yet unborn children and force them into tax slavery on some spending over which they had no control.

The Chinese are loaning the United States the money to finance this program, and as a result will gladly charge us several trillion dollars in interest to do what our government feels, in error, is necessary.

Robert C. Boys

Brighton

What??? Could the writer have possibly taken a right wing screed and worked more disparate fantasies into it? Does he know how many real scientists believe humans have altered the climate?

Who's out of step on the Supreme Court?

Are you sick and tired of hearing the phrase "activist judge"?
Me too.
But Rush and Billy O want you to feel very, very nervous when they use the phrase "activist judge".
Except I don't.
Because Rush and Billy O are enamored of four Supreme Court Justices that represent a style of law not seen since English Common Law began to evolve out of the rights of lords and landowners sometime around the 13th century. They are not activist, at least in the way they mean it, and seem at times to be barely sentient.
The four are, of course, Justice Thomas (Want a taste of my Pepsi?), Justice Scalia (We stole an election! Get over it!) Justice Alito (I testified that I'd use my life experiences but I didn't mean it.) and Justice Roberts (What kind of American doesn't like white bread?).
These four heroes of justice stood firmly against the majority ruling in June of 2009. They felt that a judge in West Virginia who received $3 million dollars to win a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from the CEO of Massey Energy had every right to not only hear a case against Massey but over rule the previous courts which had already found against Massey.
Who voted in the majority? You did you wild and crazy activists.
The July 19, 2009 Parade magazine reported that a poll it had conducted of its readers showed 93% of the respondents disagreed with the four judges trapped in feudal law and sided with the five "activist" judges of the court.
Don't let Rush scare you. He only speaks for 7% of the voters.
(By the way - Since the 1100s, courts have had parallel and co-equal authority to make law: "legislating from the bench" is a traditional and essential function of courts, which was carried over into the U.S. system as an essential component of the "judicial power" specified by Article III of the U.S. constitution. There are legitimate debates on how the powers of courts and legislatures should be balanced. However, a view that courts lack law-making power is historically inaccurate and constitutionally unsupportable.)

Congress Just Doesn't Get It

I guess if enough people conjecture about something even the babble of the ignorant gains some currency. And the ignorant are successful because they muddy the water so no one can see the real issue any more.
Last November the American electorate told their representatives that the American health care system was broken. While our costs were the highest in the world, our statistical outcomes were mediocre, comparable to some struggling East European and third world countries.
Health insurance was not only not the answer, it was part of the problem. While over half of all personal bankruptcies were caused by health care expenses, three out of four of those bankruptcies happened to people with health insurance.
And then there were the 50 million uninsured.
So how did Congress interpret this?
They didn't want to try to get more value for our buck. They want to take what we're spending per person and multiply that by the population of America.
"OUCH! Geez that's a lot of money!"
Of course it is you idiots, that's not what we wanted.
But a coalition of Republicans and Blue-dog Democrats (i.e. Democrats without brains or morals) decided there's just no way to reform health care without relying on the health insurance industry.
Which is like asking Bernie Madoff to head the U.S. Treasury.
So dear Congress person. Please listen to us.
We expect you to deliver more health care and better health care for no more than what we are paying right now!
This would put our per person cost more in line with the next two most expensive countries, Luxembourg and Switzerland and still higher than Canada. Of course they all have better health statistics than we do.
Keep screwing around and you'll see a real push for the single payer solution from your voters.
Better hurry and cash those lobbyist's checks. The lobbyists may want them back.

Republican Hypocrisy, Tort Reform, and Junk Lawsuits

Because the Republican party has demonized fringe and minority elements of our society to form some sort of white bread centrist coalition, abusive tort reform serves them as an effective wedge issue that with a little lipstick has some resonance. Everyone has heard stories about frivolous lawsuits. Some, like the lady burned by McDonalds' coffee in California are so legendary that the truths of the ruling are never acknowledged.
Now, as much needed medical reform is proposed, Republican wind bags like Rush Limbaugh have weighed in with all the insight of Dilbert's pointy head boss. According to Rush, "...do you know what you could do to drop health care costs dramatically? Tort reform." At least in his very studied, learned opinion.
They're called junk lawsuits and Republicans continuously rail against them as if the true waste in health insurance could be pared by constraining the justice system, not controlling insurance companies.
Let's be clear up front. No one has shown medical tort reform savings of even 1%...at least no one not associated with the Republican party or a right wing think tank (an oxymoron).
According to the Republicans, when people are the victim of an injustice by an American company or medical institution, their right to sue and collect damages amounts to "junk lawsuits" that are simply raising the cost of everything for everybody.
And if courtroom and settlement costs are excessive, it's kind of sad that the solution is to ban legal proceedings, not to concentrate on safer products that actually work the way they are supposed to or restructuring a medical buddy-system that allows incompetent practitioners and less than best practices.
But one man's junk is another man's treasure.
Apparently, junk lawsuits should be the exclusive legal remedy for the rich and empowered.
Do you remember a buffoon named Robert Bork, once nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court and now a reliable fool for Fox? Back in 2006 Bork tripped on his way to the dais before giving a speech at the Yale Club. He ascended the dais and gave his speech, but in retrospect decided his agony was worth $1,000,000 so he sued the Yale Club. And he still blathers regularly for those enamored of Fox' old white men protective ideals.
And (disgraced) former House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R- Texas) sued for $5.1 million when a part in a trolley his father had built from scratch malfunctioned sending the elder DeLay to the hospital where he eventually died.
Former Senator Rick Santorum's (R- Pennsylvania) wife sued her chiropractor for $500,000 for aggravated back pain.
And the loudest but most vacuous proponent fighting "junk lawsuits" is Rush Limbaugh who filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida claiming his right to medical privacy was breached when he was arrested for drug abuse.
Apparently if you're some blue collar shmoe whose child was injured by an unsafe toy or whose wife's routine surgery went very badly you should have constraints on your ability to sue.
But if you're a hypocritical Republican big-wig go ahead and take your best shot.
One man's junk is another man's treasure.